I received a call from John Tosti from his cell phone. He was in route to a destination, north of Bloomington. John had called to alert me to three "nocturnal lights" he had in his sights. Two were moving, while the other was hovering motionless north and west of town. "If there is still activity when I head back toward home, I'll give you a call."

By now, I was standing outside, scrutinizing the night sky. Atmospheric conditions had been lousy since Christmas, but currently we were enjoying a temporary respite. Although conditions were ideal for sightings, I remember remarking, "Well, I don't see a thing out this
way." No sooner did those words leave my lips, when two amber lights appeared to the east. One moved toward the other, then both objects dimmed, and disappeared.

I knew John would be calling back, so I gathered all my equipment together and waited. At 11:52 PM, the telephone rang. John was standing along side a rural lane, south of Bloomington, with ever-increasing excitement in his voice. He was describing a scene reminiscent of the famous Mexican
"flaps," and certainly unprecedented in our personal experiences. "I see three UFOs hovering directly over Bloomington! And I see red lights, blue, - and there's white - all moving around each other, constantly changing form. Oh, Lynn! - Lynn! There's another one! It just appeared out of nowhere! I've never seen anything like this! Lynn! - Lynn! - Lynn! Now there's another one! Now, two of them are approaching each
other. There for a moment, it looked like they were going to collide!"

I spoke up, "John, I think I'd better get down there. Where are you, exactly?"

He relayed his location but said, "Just meet me down at my house."

Shortly thereafter, I was traveling south on highway 37. On the way down I scanned the heavens for activity. I spotted three more objects, north and west of town, for a total of five.

When I arrived at John's house, he advised me that while he was standing beside the road, a "good old boy" in a pickup truck stopped to ask if everything was okay. John replied, "I'm just watching those lights over Bloomington." The man was nursing a can of beer, as he got out of his truck to get a closer look. I asked John what the man's reaction was to
what he saw before him. He said the man never uttered a word, but got back in his pickup, and just drove away.

I told John, "He'll probably swear off drinking, after this!"

John and I traveled back to his previous sighting location, where we immediately located two amber lights, undulating with varied colors. They possessed an awesome brilliance, as they slowly floated over the sleeping suburbs below. The objects flickered like a flare dropped from an airplane, but these were not flares we were watching. Flares fall downward. These lights were floating horizontally with a certain grace, not unlike a hot-air balloon on a lazy summer day. We decided to try
and get closer to one of the objects, so we chose the closest, brightest one. What ensued was a strange cat and mouse game. I'm not really sure who was the cat, and who was the mouse, however. When we reached a better vantage point, we parked, and manned our binoculars and compass, in order to make a better determination of detail and direction. What I saw, was a dazzling display of brilliant, red and white lights, with an occasional hint of green or blue between the brighter lights. The whole thing looked like two rows of a checker board, except in this case, instead of red and black, I was looking at perfectly square, non-blinking red and white lights. We must have been a good two miles from the object, but John wanted to
try and elicit a reaction from it with his bizillion candlepower spotlight. He flashed three times at the motionless craft. The object responded by drifting northward momentarily, before reversing course. It then began to descend at approximately a 45-degree
angle until it could no longer be seen. IF the object landed, then my best guess is that it touched down somewhere between Bloomington High School South, on South Walnut Street, and west of the RCA plant, which is situated on South Rogers Street.

All this time, another object remained behind us to the east, and still another one held a
position to our north. We started the car, and headed for the next nearest one, but each time we made a move, they made a move. I felt like a solitary checker on a giant checkerboard, surrounded by some mysterious opponent's "kinged" game pieces. But instead of moving in for the
"kill," they maintained a discrete distance from us, and being no doubt, aware of our presence from the outset. I had the feeling they were okay with our being there; they just didn't want us getting too close.

We checked a few known rural "hot spots," but soon determined that for
tonight, anyway, the "hot spot" was directly over Bloomington. This set me to thinking. Where was the usual compliment of "Grid Runners" (military fighter jets, who fly crisscross patterns over an assigned grid)? Normally, when
UFO activity is observed, Grid Runners are not far behind. The only conventional aircraft we detected, was a small private plane with standard lighting, and what we believed to be, a helicopter. Could it be then, that our military has standing
orders not to challenge or approach in any way, a UFO over a population center? It would seem logical, given the worst case scenario. Imagine, if you will, a fighter jet crashing into a UFO, then both falling helplessly, onto the town below, resulting in an explosion that takes out four city blocks. Now that would be, what our British friends would call, a "sticky wicket". I really don't think our government would want to risk such a disaster. The next logical question is: Have the aliens figured this out, as well?

All totaled, John and I sighted nearly twenty UFOs over Bloomington and the surrounding area on this
particular night. John commented, "In all the times I've been out at night watching them (nocturnal lights / UFOs), I have never seen anything like what we've seen tonight; that is, the number of
'ships' and the fact that most of them were directly over Bloomington."
Neither have I, John!

I am still trying to piece together exactly what it is that I have learned from this adventure.
At the moment I'm not sure, but I am definitely looking at giving up checkers.